Keith Rivers was ready to go, and the Bengals were ready to let him go, so in April, Cincinnati traded the linebacker to the Giants for a fifth-round pick.

“We just weren’t on the same page on a lot of things,” Rivers said. “It was great to be able to go somewhere else and get a fresh start.”

Nine games into his Giants tenure, Rivers has gotten his fresh start, but is now heading back to familiar, if not fond, territory. Tomorrow, the Giants will visit Cincinnati with Rivers in tow. If he’s active — he worked every day in practice this week, but is still questionable with a calf injury — he is set to face his former team for the first time since they parted ways.

Yesterday Rivers dismissed the idea this game will mean more to him personally, insisting he didn’t have anything to prove against the Bengals he wouldn’t have against another team. He also called his tenure in Cincinnati “a good time.”

“It’s a business trip,” Rivers said. “Go out there and do what we need to do to get a ‘W.’ ”

Rivers’ declarations, however, have certainly been toned down a bit from what they were a few months ago. During mini-camp in June, he was asked if he could be a steal for the Giants, and he promptly replied: “A steal? I was the ninth pick in the draft. That’s beyond a steal. It’s armed robbery.”

Through a little more than half a season, however, Rivers’ time with the Giants has hardly qualified as that. For one, he has struggled to stay healthy, playing in only five games due to injury. For another, he has no sacks or forced turnovers and a total of just 20 tackles. Nineteen of his tackles, however, have come in three games — the season opener against the Cowboys (seven), Week 7 against the Redskins (six) and Week 8 against the Cowboys (six). Not coincidentally, those are the three games Rivers started this season.

If you project his starting stats over a full season, Rivers would be on pace for over 100 tackles on the year. He had similar production in Cincinnati — 101 tackles in 13 games in 2009, 95 in 15 games in 2010 — but he also missed nine games as a rookie in 2008 due to a fractured jaw and was sidelined all of last season after wrist surgery.

“That’s just been kind of the bad luck for me … injuries,” Rivers said. “I don’t think it’s ever been a question of my play. It’s been a question of being healthy.”

Rivers didn’t elaborate much on his claim of not being on the same page with the Bengals, although he said it had nothing to do with his role.

“We didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,” he said.

Not that it’s overly surprising Rivers was tight-lipped. Asked if he had seen any extra motivation from Rivers this week, Giants coach Tom Coughlin replied: “No, I haven’t. He keeps things to himself.”

It didn’t sound as if Rivers had been able to be too helpful this week with information about his former team. He said the Bengals have a new running back, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, and have done a lot of maneuvering with their offensive line, among other things.